I'm really interested in any personal commentaries, in addition
to those already submitted, about the use of the CCS compiler
or any other compilers (that might exist) less expensive than
the ByteCraft product. (I've tried Bytecraft demo, but haven't
bought any compiler yet.)

I think that the language selected for a compiler, at least
for the basic operations and constructs that are most easily
implemented in a HLL for the PIC, is not of primary importance.

So I would encourage those folks out in netland that are working
on * any * PIC compiled language, BASIC, C, or some custom hybrid,
to keep at it, and to please announce here when something is ready
for testing.